We start with feedback from your essays 'Successful films depend as much upon marketing and distribution to specific audiences as they do upon good production practices.' To what extent would you agree with this statement?
- Your opening sentence should refer directly to the exam question set. For example, write 'The most successful recent film that I have studied is Skyfall which took $1 billion at the world wide box office and was also a triumph in terms of production values. I will identify its audiences and show how a range of clever marketing and distribution strategies contributed to its success.'
- Start each paragraph with a topic sentence that refers directly to the question. For example, The Hobbit was hugely successful both artistically (its production values included 48fps, motion capture, 3D) and financially (world wide box office success $922,597,516). I will show how it successfully targeted both Western and Asian audiences through carefully timed release dates.'
- Another example: 'Iron Man 3 is an example of a film that successfully targeted a specific audience, the global market, specifically Chinese audiences, through a range of distribution strategies. It is interesting to note what Iron Man 3 has done to distribution in China: although the hero, brash but brilliant industrialist Tony Stark exemplifies the gung-ho spirit of the US, the script was vetted by Beijing, the film has a Chinese co-producer, many of the gadgets are from the Chinese electronics firm TCL, Ben Kingsley plays The Mandarin and a famous Chinese actor plays the villain Dr Wu. These measure aim to target the huge (global) Chinese audience. However, China also manipulates figures by imposing quotas on foreign film while giving incentives to national cinema.
- BUT In future, Hollywood may not have such a hold over global markets. In the first three months of 2013, ticket sales for American-made films in the world's second-largest cinema market took an unexpected nosedive. Hollywood's bombastic superheroes have met their match as they struggle to keep their foothold in China: revenues fell in China, compared with the same period last year as big budget movies like The Hobbit failed to impress. ChinaFilmbiz.com reports that American movies "now hold a mere 23% of mainland China ticket revenues, a disastrous drop from the 57% share they held at this point last year".
- Write: 'There are films that will only ever achieve national audiences, and very small niche ones at that, because they lack studio backing and all the distribution methods available to Hollywood with what Dalecki called '4 S megafranchise' model of synergy, sequelization, story and spectacle. These methods successfully target global audiences. By contrast, Tortoise In Love is a low budget, crowd-sourced film made by a village for villages around the country. It is the first film to release simultaneously in 123 village communities around the UK as well as mainstream theatres. It depended on the BFI's Prints and Advertising fund to develop the marketing and distribution strategy that led to its success at the rural box office (gross just under £30 thousand) and mainstream box office (£8+ thousand). PR reached out to a braod online audience, particularly sites with a regional focus. The core demographic was a rural audience so they used targeted promotions on key sites such as Mature Times (tour and tea promotion) and Gransnet (homepage coverage), stressing the key regional focus. Another specific audience, the older female, was reached through additional activity on key older female lifestyle sites and listings as well as The Lady.
- Trends: did you remember to include them?
- Your own viewing habits: did you refer to what you and your peers do?
